More than a dozen Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration over the federal vaccine mandate for companies rolled out Thursday, which requires thousands of employers to make sure their workers are vaccinated for COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing.

What You Need To Know

  • More than a dozen Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration over the federal vaccine mandate for companies rolled out Thursday

  • On Friday, attorneys general in 11 states were the first major group to sue in a filing led by Missouri, and Texas and Florida also announced suits

  • New federal regulations mandate that companies with more than 100 employees require their workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be tested for the virus weekly

  • Republican leaders called the mandate unconstitutional and outside the bounds of federal authority, while the Biden admin. has painted it as a way to save lives and help end the pandemic

On Friday, attorneys general in 11 states were the first major group to sue, in a filing led by Missouri and joined by Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Iowa’s Democratic Attorney General Tom Miller.

“This mandate is unconstitutional, unlawful, and unwise,” said the court filing by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, one of several Republicans vying for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat next year.

Texas and Florida officials also announced suits Friday morning.

New regulations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration mandate that companies with more than 100 employees require their workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be tested for the virus weekly and wear masks on the job. The requirement is to kick in Jan. 4. Failure to comply could result in penalties of nearly $14,000 per violation.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis  joined Alabama and Georgia on Friday in filing a lawsuit against the worker mandate.

“I don’t think people want this decision yanked away from them. I don’t think they want to allow a precedent where the federal government can just force you,”  he said Thursday. “I think this rule is absolutely going down.” 

The Biden administration has been encouraging widespread vaccinations as the quickest way out of the pandemic. A White House spokeswoman said Thursday that the mandate was intended to halt the spread of a disease that has claimed more than 750,000 lives in the U.S.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also filed a petition for review of the rule in court on Friday, calling the rule “way outside” OSHA’s bounds.

Experts say the president’s authority to implement the rule lies in the labor agency’s ability to set national safety standards in the workplace, such as measures to prevent injuries.

Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee filed a suit this week aimed at a different national mandate: a requirement for federal contractors that also has a deadline of Jan. 4. Several other Republican states had already moved to get that mandate thrown out.

After the OSHA announcement Thursday, a pair of large Wisconsin manufacturers also filed a lawsuit with the help of a conservative law firm.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed the lawsuit Thursday on behalf of Darien-based Tankcraft Corp. and Plasticraft Corp.

The two companies say they had to “decide between two impossible choices. If they imposed the mandate, they will lose employees who do not wish to be vaccinated or tested weekly and precious days of productivity due to testing, vaccinations, and vaccine side effects,” the lawsuit said.